Girl Scouts Learn About the Importance of Hand Hygiene on Global Handwashing Day

On Saturday, Oct. 15, we observed Global Handwashing Day by hosting a group of Girl Scouts at our Orlando facility for activities that were both educational and life-changing. Global Handwashing Day is an annual global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness about the importance of handwashing with soap as an effective way to prevent diseases.

Clean the World is packaging 3,000 hygiene kits for U.S. residents affected by Hurricane Matthew using items donated by United Airlines. The repurposed items come from the airline’s international premium cabin amenity kits and help us fill a critical need for at-risk people. The Girl Scouts were a huge help as they assembled hundreds of the kits during their visit.

Scouts who weren’t working on the hygiene kit assembly line helped prepare damaged and empty shampoo bottles for recycling.

The girls also took part in a hand washing activity, during which they learned the importance of washing for 20 seconds before eating, and after using the restroom, coughing, sneezing, or shaking hands. They rubbed glitter on their hands to represent germs, and took turns washing to get rid of the “glitter germs.”

The scouts drew pictures of their hands before and after hand washing, and worked on designs for a special Clean the World Girl Scout badge. And to encourage those whose lives were disrupted by the hurricane, the girls wrote greeting cards for affected people in Haiti, the Bahamas, and Southeastern U.S. coastal areas.